Friday, August 15, 2014

· ENRICCO, Songs From Another Gender part IV ·

Hullo, me hearties.

This is the fourth entry of the presentation I make for Through Waves’ EP “SONGS FROM ANOTHER GENDER”.

“SONGS FROM ANOTHER GENDER” is a short collection of songs from my personal files which, until the present date, I was unable to release, for various reasons. They are now properly assembled and recorded, and available for you. For eight weeks, I will present each track with lyrics and whatever story I can tell about them. This EP happens at a defining moment in my life, which is characterized by a tremendous shift of perspective regarding my identity and expression; and by being an ongoing theme in denial in my life, as the songs come from as late as 2008 and as early as 2013, shows that it is imperative to address this subject, otherwise Through Waves would have no means to continue its musical endeavours. Basically, without this EP, there would be no other albums, or no Raine Holtz for that matter (whoever they are), so here it is, at last.

"SONGS FROM ANOTHER GENDER" will be released on September 16, 2014, as a limited edition CD and digital download, all available exclusively on The Lily AnnWharf, Through Waves' Official Bandcamp. As usual, produced and released independently by myself via my private label The Schooner Harbour, it features 8 songs: one of them, "Fredrich", being a translation/adaptation of a poem written by my mother in the 70's.

The fourth track presented is ENRICCO: “The Honeysuckle Paths”.

Enricco me tomou docemente pela mão,

Levou-me para caçar lebres no verão.

Fez-me uma grinalda de folhas verdes,

Fez-me uma corda e me chamou de "meu".

This is an old, old one. You may remember the demo version of the song I've released in the digital compilation "Relic" some years ago, and by my constant live playing of it whenever I had the chance.

"ENRICCO" is my happy place. This is probably the only song I have made which doesn't completely saddens me. It instead fills me with a sense of peace, one that I seldom feel in my own work. Maybe that is way I am constantly revisiting it when I perform live. I am always grateful for this particular boy. In the midst of all the stress in my life, he showed up, a little brown-headed child with a crooked smile, while I was sitting at the treshold of the world, completely alone, afraid of taking a step forward, quiet below the shade of all my sacred trees. He came and took me by the hand, put a garland of fresh leaves on my head and tied a ribbon between our hands. And ever since, he guides me whenever I can't see what's waiting for me. "ENRICCO" makes me so, so happy. I had a huge debt with him when I released that demo version of the song. It was a deal we had, that I should revisit his story with the perspective of time, and allow him to grow like a young and strong plant, so his work could continously be relevant to me. This is one of the instances in which my recorded music isn't an exorcism and a burial: "ENRICCO" lives and threads my path hand in hand.

Thank you, my dearest boy. This is for you.

I am pleased to introduce you to ENRICCO. Thank you for listening. For the next song of “SONGS FROM ANOTHER GENDER”, please visit this page on August 22.